


The Case of the Same Black Backpacks

by iceice_ty



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Airports and Airlines, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Crack, M/M, jaemin the matchmaker, mark and haechanare both Dumb and Oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-13 01:23:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21235820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iceice_ty/pseuds/iceice_ty
Summary: Mark and Haechan happen to have the same black bag and Fate (aka Na Jaemin) keeps bringing them together in the Vancouver International Airport.prompt: #S052:markhyuck au where Mark and Donghyuck's backpack accidentally got exchange at the airport





	The Case of the Same Black Backpacks

**Author's Note:**

> dear prompter: I hope you enjoy this fic! This was such a cute concept I'm so glad I got to write it!

  
  


Mark didn’t necessarily hate airports, but he definitely strongly disliked them. Very strongly. Especially when he was at the Vancouver International Airport at 3am on a Tuesday, in the longest security line he’d ever seen, waiting to go through so he could get on a plane for 14 hours. He was surprised at the length of the TSA checkpoint line, this wasn’t the most popular time for travel, even in an international terminal. But it was what it was and Mark tried to pass the time by people watching. It was a pastime of his, an old habit from when he was young and dreamed of being a writer when he grew up. He’d make up stories about the lives of everyone around him, sometimes even connecting them together.

For instance, the family speaking rapid Chinese in the line across from him were tourists returning home from a successful family vacation, it was the end of summer after all, and the kids were bouncing off the walls as the parents just wanted to get on the plane, make it through security without any hassle. And the older lady in front of him, she was on her way to visit her grandchildren. And the two teens behind him, probably his age ...well Mark didn’t know, couldn't think up a story because every time he turned around he’d only be able to think about how  _ pretty _ the boy with light brown hair was. How golden his skin was, how fluffy his hair is, how even though he had a white mask pulled up over his mouth and nose he still had one of the most unique faces Mark had ever seen and he just wanted to stare. But that would be rude, and from the way Pretty Golden Boy (as Mark dubbed him in his head) was being used as a human pillow by his travel partner (another teen, tall with broad shoulders and silver blond hair with grey fringe, very attractive) probably in a relationship. Mark hadn't been able to hear any of the soft words they’d been exchanging on and off for the ten minutes they’ve been in this line, but Mark could recognize the familiar lilt of Korean.  _ Maybe they’ll be on my flight _ Mark thought, brain drifting traitorously towards fantasies of sitting next to Pretty Golden Boy for the duration of the 14-hour flight. Mark must’ve been drifting off more than he thought because what felt like seconds later he was loading up his shoes and sweatshirt into a dull grey plastic bin and frantically pulling his laptop and tablet from his backpack before being waved through a metal detector. He was briefly pat down (some tired-looking TSA agent ran her hands down his chest and back quicker than Mark could even comprehend) and then Mark was on the other side of the terminal, waiting for his bag to come through the detector. 

From the corner of his eye, Mark saw Pretty Golden Boy and his friend go through the same treatment of dumping their stuff onto the conveyor belt and stepping through the metal detector. The boy's friend went through first and then all three of them were standing in line, waiting for their things to go through. The TSA agent behind the detector lifted up a bin containing a black backpack. "Whose is this?"

It looked like Mark's, plain black backpack, a little too full, so he raised his hand, but before he could say 'me' he heard another voice pipe up and say "it's mine."

Mark looked around and Pretty Golden Boy also had his hand up. They looked at each other for a second, eyes wide, before PGB's friend started laughing.

"You two have the same bag! That's so funny, what are the odds?" Mark shrugged, still a little shocked by the coincidence himself. The TSA agent sighed, obviously tired and wanting to get over with his shift.

"Black backpack with um," he reached in and pulled out a grey leather notebook with a gold sun etched into the cover, "this in it." Mark shook his head as PGB spoke up, his English heavily accented.

"Yeah, that's mine." The agent nodded.

"Come with me over here then, sir." The boy nodded and shot off something quick and low in Korean before following the agent to an area not too far behind the line they stood in. Mark and the boy's friend each grabbed their bags and shoes and electronics and went over to a nearby bench to repack.

"I still can't believe you and Haechan have the same bag." The boy-Haechan- 's friend commented, stuffing a tablet into his own light purple bag. Mark nodded.

"Yeah, I mean, it's not the most uncommon bag, but that we were standing right next to each other?" Haechan's friend smiled.

"Fate does crazy things. I'm Jaemin by the way, and that's Haechan." He gestures over at Pretty Golden Boy, flashing Mark a wide smile. Mark sticks out a hand to shake and smiles back, although not quite as blinding as Jaemin's.

"Mark." He replies and Jaemin shakes his hand and smiles again. Mark feels his breath get knocked out of him a little, Haechan was gorgeous but Jaemin had an attractive aura as well. Just before the silence stretched into the territory of being awkward Haechan walked over, clapping a hand down on Jaemin’s shoulder. 

“ _ I hate airport security. Like I forgot a tube of lip balm in a pocket and they had to search the whole thing _ ” Haechan complained in rapid Korean. 

“Oh that’s the worst.” Mark commented before really thinking and earned a surprised glance from Haechan, and a far less surprised look from Jaemin. 

_ “You speak Korean? _ ” Haechan exclaimed, eyes lighting up slightly. 

Mark shrugged and ducked his head, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “Yeah. I go to school there and my family is from there” 

“But you grew up here in Canada?” Jaemin asked, gently nudging Haechan so he’d stop staring and start repacking his bag. 

“Yeah. I lived in New York for a couple of years too. But I grew up in North America, yes.” 

Jaemin nodded thoughtfully. “Cool. Haechan and I are both Korean born and raised. Although he lived in Jeju for most his life.” Now it was Mark’s turn to be impressed. 

“Oh wow, dude that’s sweet! No wonder you’re so tan, all the time on the beach.” Mark instantly regretted saying anything remotely close to that but as he opened his mouth to start word-vomiting an apology, Haechan spoke.

“Oh, uh, thanks,” Haechan muttered and Mark suddenly realized his cheeks were flushing. The observation filled him with the smallest amount of pride. Mark was still looking at Haechan when the boy looked up and their eyes met. It wasn’t the first time, but this time Mark couldn’t make himself look away. Every time he thought he should he noticed another small detail on Haechan's face, like the constellations of moles or the warm brown of his eyes or the faint shimmer of makeup across his eyelids or the smooth pink of his lips. How someone managed to be so radiantly beautiful at ass o'clock in the morning under the harsh lights of the airport was beyond Mark. He was pretty sure his too-pale skin looked pallid and he definitely had some serious stubble and he was breaking out along his cheeks and forehead and his glasses were old and a little crooked. He was staring love-struck at this beautiful boy who was almost certainly looking back in disgust.

For the second time, Jaemin cleared his throat awkwardly and nudged Haechan with his elbow. "So, guys, _we’re in Gate B16. Mark. I’m assuming you’re on our flight. Korean Air?_” Mark and Haechan both startle and whip their gaze to Jaemin, who looks simultaneously very uncomfortable and very amused. Mark checks his ticket before nodding.   
“Yeah, B16, seat, um,” Mark has to flip the ticket over to the other side for the seating info, “Seat 15C.” Haechan makes a choked off sound that could possibly an impression of a dying seal. Now Jaemin looks _incredibly_ amused. 

“Hey, Channie, we’re 15B and D, right? So Mark’s in between us?” he points out smugly and Haechan nods slowly while swallowing. 

“That would be correct, Nana,” he replies, shooting his friend a glare that, if looks could kill, would’ve eliminated Jaemin on the spot. Mark had to stiffly his laughter at the look on Haechan’s face until the thought dawned on him that he would be spending the next 14 or so hours next to Haechan, someone who Mark can admit having a crush on at this point. It’s only been like twenty minutes tops but the boy is fiery and so very attractive. 

Some middle-aged white lady coughs pointedly at them, arms full of security bins and they all scramble to vacate the bench they were taking up, heading down the hallway in the direction of their gate. Jaemin had broken off with Haechan and was whispering in rapid, quiet Korean while Mark felt like he was awkwardly trailing behind them. They were going to be sitting together, so it would be weird to ignore them now, but also Mark wasn’t feeling very welcomed. Mark decided he’d feel even more awkward if he just randomly split off from them. So he just tried to list all the work he needed to have done before classes started again.

Jaemin glanced back, still half-listening to Haechan’s half-panicked whispering about Mark. Said boy was awkwardly trailing behind them, looking around as if for an exit. Jaemin suddenly came to a stop, surprising Haechan into silence and startling Mark into abruptly stopping, seconds away from crashing into them. “I need coffee, desperately. There’s a Starbucks at the end of this terminal, so the three of us are going on an expedition. Let’s go!” Jaemin announces dramatically, raising a fist at the end before pointing ahead and marching like he’s leading a military charge into battle. Haechan snorts before rolling his eyes and following, a few steps behind. Mark, however, freezes in place, long enough for Haechan to turn around, before collapsing to the ground in hysterical laughter. Jaemin stops a few yards away and turns back to see Haechan staring at Mark’s laughing fit for all of five seconds before joining him. Jaemin chuckles triumphantly and goes back to collect his friend and herd them to the Starbucks. 

After the ‘Starbucks Expedition from Hell’ (as Jaemin dubbed it) the three of them set up shop at their gate, multiple devices plugged in and slow airport wifi connected. Mark was convinced to try Jaemin’s “coffee” (if that liquid rubber could be called such a beverage) and despite the burning of his taste buds, Mark was proud to have made Haechan laugh so hard twice in an hour. Mark was downloading a handful of Netflix shows and double-checking that his music software was set to offline mode and all his base tracks were stored and able to open. Jaemin had asked what Mark was doing and both he and Haechan were impressed to hear about Mark’s major. Mark also learned that Jaemin was a criminology major and Haechan was an astronomy major. Jaemin recommended a show to Mark and Mark shared his SoundCloud with them. Time flew and soon they were boarding the plane.

They had been in the air for almost four hours when Haechan dropped off and finally stopped fidgeting. Mark let out a sigh of relief that made Jaemin glance over at him. He cocked his head to the side in question but Mark just shook his head and Jaemin shrugged before going back to the movie he was watching. Mark definitely had a crush on Haechan and being constantly pressed against his side as the other tried to find a semi-comfortable position to sleep in was making Mark a little crazy. He kept having this desire to offer his shoulder up as a pillow seeing as he was a good height for it. Mark went back to his laptop, staring at the blank document that was supposed to have lyrics written for his music production class. All of the break Mark had been putting off writing lyrics for lack of inspiration. But he was going to need them soon and for the first time in weeks, he had something to write about: Haechan. Mark started typing, just listing out words in a free-association exercise. It was one of the only pieces of advice from his creative writing course freshman year that he used on a regular basis, something about just zoning out as his brain whirred away words to use later calmed him and made him feel especially productive. Maybe it was the speed with which he typed, soft clacking on the keyboard mixing with his music, just a plain beat, to create another kind of music. Mark doesn’t know how long he typed away, but soon he had almost two pages of random words and paragraphs, even a few full lines. Jaemin had definitely side-eyes him at least twice by now, but Mark found he couldn’t care. Shutting down his computer he decided to take a page from Haechan’s book and sleep the second half of the flight. 

Mark was awoken by the familiar shaking of the plane. That meant only one thing: they were landing. Haechan was still sound asleep, drooling a little on Mark’s shoulder. Had it been anyone else Mark would’ve been annoyed (and he still was honestly) but Haechan also looked so cute, brows a little scrunched in his sleep and mouth hanging open, lips pink and soft-looking. Mark jumped a little when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned and registered Jaemin giving him the widest shit-eating grin Mark had ever seen. 

“If you’re done staring, please wake him up. He’s insufferable if he wakes up when the plane jolts upon landing.” Mark shoots Jaemin A Look but still faces more towards Haechan, gently shaking his knee to awaken him. 

“Rise and shine, sunshine. We’re about to land” Haechan groaned a little and Jaemin snickered at the nickname. 

“We’ landing already?” Haechan mumbled in Korean, voice warm. Mark hummed in affirmation and Haechan sat up slowly. Before blinking slowly, looking up at Mark, and then jumping to full attention. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry! I’m so used to flying with Nana, I just totally spent half the flight sleeping on you, and I drooled on you, you must think I’m so gross, oh I’m sorry--” 

“Haechan, breathe. It’s fine.”

“More than fine!”Jaemin calls from Mark’s other side and Mark turned to fix him with a glare. He turns back to Haechan once more. 

“The point is it’s chill. I didn’t mind.” Mark reassures firmly, and Haechan nods. 

“Okay, that’s good. Thanks for letting me sleep on you then, you, um, you have very nice shoulders.” Haechan fixes his eyes to his hands in his lap as he compliments Mark, cheeks flushed. Jaemin scoffs just as the plane touches the tarmac and Haechan flinches, grabbing Mark’s hand. Mark smiles to himself before squeezing Haechan’s hand back. As soon as they’ve slowed down Haechan drops his hand without mentioning it, so Mark focuses on packing his stuff away so he can get off the plane quickly. He really,  _ really _ had to pee. When they boarded Mark and Haechan has been careful to separate their bags, Mark’s underneath his seat and Haechan’s in the overhead bin. The flight attendants go through the normal landing procedures and the rush of people trying to get off carriers Mark our. He had the time to say quick goodbyes to Haechan and Jaemin, and an even quicker promise to meet up soon, especially since they went to the same school. Mark was sitting in a bathroom stall, texting his parents that he got home safe and his brother what gate he was exiting from, maybe five minutes after saying goodbye to Jaemin and Haechan. Suddenly the loudspeaker crackled to life and a tired-sounding female voice rang out within the airport. 

“Sorry for the interruption, this is the Lost Baggage Desk calling for Mark Lee, again this is the Lost Baggage Desk calling for Mark Lee. Please promptly make your way over, there’s been a mix up with your luggage, thank you.” Mark frowns, certain that it’s not him, when he spots a tear on the left strap of the bag he has, a tear that definitely is not there on his bag. It would seem despite how careful he and Haechan were they still swapped bags. Mark flushed, washed his hands, and then power-walked to the desk. Upon his arrival, he saw an embarrassed Haechan and a smirking Jaemin. He smiles politely to the woman working the desk before dropping the bag to the ground and pulling his stuff out of it. Haechan has already removed his belongings from Mark’s bags, and they grin bashfully at each other as they repacked their correct bags, confirmed by Jaemin this time. Mark is a little convinces he was the one who switched them, the guy seems mischievous. 

Mark and Haechan exchanged goodbyes again, Jaemin whined about needing more coffee and wished Mark a safe drive to campus. Haechan and Jaemin has just turned around, getting ready to take the train back into Seoul, when a thought strikes Mark. Objectively it’s good odds that Fate will allow Mark to meet Jaecjan again. They go to the same school on the same campus, chances are they’ll see each other. But Fate has done enough, Mark decides, she’s done her part in bringing them together. He takes a handful of long strides before calling out “Haechan! Wait up!”Mark jogs over, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he approaches. 

“Listen, I know this is a little forward but I think you’re cool and super cute, so please give me your number so we can meet up.” Mark let’s all the words spill out in a tumble. Jaemin has his biggest smirk yet while Haechan looks shell-shocked. A harsh elbow from Jaemin startled him into place and he nods eagerly, taking the phone from Mark. 

“I think you’re really cute too, text me soon, o-okay?” Haechan manages time get out and Mark nods shyly. 

“Will do.” As he speaks, Mark’s phone lights up with a call from his brother. Mark declines it, but takes his phone back from Haechan. “Promise I’ll message you tonight. See you soon sunshine. You too, Jaemin.” With a last wave Mark walks away, heart light and smile sunny, already thinking about the newest number in his phone. 


End file.
